Ulster Protestants

Ulster Protestants are an ethnoreligious group in the Irish province of Ulster, making up 54% of the population. Most Ulster Protestants are descended from Protestant immigrants from Galloway and the Scottish Borders in Scotland and from Northumberland in northern England, known as the Ulster Scots and the Anglo-Irish, respectively. Since the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century, the Ulster Protestants have formed settlements in Northern Ireland and have formed major communities, including the large Protestant communities of Belfast and the rest of County Antrim. From the 17th century until 1998, Ulster Protestants were treated preferentially in jobs, housing, and, especially, politics, as Irish Catholics were prevented from holding public office due to the United Kingdom's religious laws.

The Protestants remained in power for centuries, but the growth of the NICRA civil rights movement during the 1960s and the ensuing violence of The Troubles from 1968 to 1998 led to Protestant control over the region being disputed. The Protestants mostly supported Ulster unionism, believing that the United Kingdom should protect their status as the ruling class in Northern Ireland, while the Catholic supported the Irish republican Sinn Fein party and its armed wing, the Provisional IRA. Protestants formed violent paramilitary groups such as the Ulster Defense Association, Ulster Volunteer Force, and the Red Hand Commando to fight against the Irish republicans and to "protect" Protestant communities, although they engaged in sectarian violence that would include attacks on innocent civilians. In 1998, after years of bloody conflict, the two sides agreed to the Good Friday Agreement, which established a power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly that would convene at Stormont. Sinn Fein and the Protestants' Ulster Unionist Party (and later their Democratic Unionist Party) shared power, leading to a rapid decrease in violence. Today, Protestants make up a slight majority of Northern Ireland's population, and the British government's policy of consent ensures that Northern Ireland will not be returned to the Irish people unless the majority supports Irish republicanism. In 2017, there were about 873,464 Protestants in Northern Ireland and 27,234 in Ireland.